Philippine authorities are cracking down on Chinese nationals with fake Filipino citizenship who have snapped up plots of land in Luzon, a trend that observers say has been going on for decades and poses a security threat amid fears of criminal operations with possible links to such sales.
Several Chinese individuals were reported by local media this week to have bought thousands of hectares of land in the Central Luzon region, northwest of Manila, and provided “fake and spurious documents” to bypass ownership laws, according to a Senate committee investigating links between offshore gaming operators (Pogos), suspicious land purchases, and killings tied to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
Lawmakers pointed to Chinese nationals Aedi Tai Yang and Willie Ong, who were found to be involved in dubious land transactions in Pampanga province. Yang allegedly falsified documents to obtain Philippine citizenship, which he used to buy land and establish local businesses, while Ong was said to have owned up to 300 property titles.
The Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission (PAOCC) revealed that its investigations showed Chinese nationals leased or bought large swathes of farmland for as much as 90,000 pesos (US$1,547) per hectare, or every 10,000 square metres.
“Instead of farmers planting in these lots, the Chinese pay them to lease the properties instead – it’s up to them to decide what they want to do with these properties,” PAOCC chief Gilbert Cruz told local media last month.
The Office of the Solicitor General said it was reviewing the Senate’s documents and gathering sufficient evidence to “commence the appropriate legal actions”, which might include seizing such properties and cancelling the owners’ birth certificates.
